Antti Auvinen

The Finnish classical music composer Antti Auvinen's website was both challenging and fun to make: something different for a while. Antti's idea of having a "different" website was born when he visited my work-o-matic - he wanted some kind of grazy machine also for himself. The final site is based on my first sketch but boy was it built! There is also a more user friendly version of the composer machine there, somewhere...

Cardinal - Dream Figure

Some time ago I got a little order for unique coloring pictures and finally I got the set ready to be sent to orderer. I'm hoping to get some more coloring images to be sold in Art Museum Bazaar. These images are drawn to a 200g acid free Fabriano drawing paper with water proof archival pigment ink Picma Micron 08 marker and each image is unique with signature. I've planned my colouring tip site for ages now... Maybe it's finally the time to realize some ideas. Soon...

Fleet Foxes - He Doesn't Know Why

www.taitoshop.fi/en
Just went online: Taito-Shop site also in English (selected content...) with a christmassy layout.

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And short advertisement is always a good thing: At December 13-14 there will be an "art bazaar" at the Art Museum of Jyväskylä where I'll sell (or try to) my prints and possibly some colour/dyeing related stuff. I have prints ok, but this dye thing (I had planned to make some dye example kits) is still unsure since I've been with flu for some weeks already and not very vital at the moment...

Walkmen - The Rat

Three membered (Soile, Ilkka and I) Live Herring work group was nominated as regional artist of film and media-art by the Central Finland Art Council. We start our project from the beginning of year 2009. After two years work there is still a possibility to have three more years if we do our job well... Our Very Official (!?) portrait is from “Wish You Were There?” installation of Tomi Knuutila which is part of the Live Herring ‘08 exhibition.

More about Live Herring and the exhibition going on right now (until November 23rd) from www.liveherring.org

Live Herring 08 print design

How did I end here? My first ever printed two-sided REAL brochure (not those copied ones), a poster and a flyer...

The brochure design is a doubleside A4, folded in three parts, the inner sleeve showing the main works of the exhibition. The poster is very simple A3 size poster.


More about Live Herring and the exhibition going on right now (until November 23rd) from www.liveherring.org

The National - Fake Empire

Documenting work days, project continues:

(~10am) Started the day with answering some emails with full coffee cup on my side. The exhibition place for next June is now reserved for Timppa and me - this was truly good news since we were already thinking that the place wasn't available anymore. The meetings for tomorrow confirmed. Sent some Project X ideas to be read before the meeting. Requesting about one missing url for one net exhibition (of which people are starting to be mad to me even though its not my project at all... Grrrr.)

Some photo searching and photoediting for Swedish Taito Shop site (to be open soon).

Some wlan modem configuration... (ARGH!)

Received a letter with intranet passwords from school. Wrote some stuff for school.
Started making demos of the Craft Museum one page shop layout but couldn't get too far when I had to leave.

Went to computer shop to ask about the missing bioprotection of a new laptop / notebook. (Where I met one friend from a looooong time ago - who actually doesn't live that far from here. Promised to send him Facebook inv. but this day it just didn't happen...)

(~1pm) At about one met with A in café. Discussed about some personal stuff + some design/art related possible projects (for the next year).

(~2pm) because of cancelled meeting ended up to the Central Finland Arts Council to have more coffee and to read some encyclopedia. Wrote down some ideas for following meeting and some ideas for the art project next summer.

(~4.30pm) Project X meeting in Sohwi - where I also had my meal.

(~5.30pm) Live Herring project meeting with only some things to talk about.

(~7pm) Home, downloading some press images for a couple of projects. Sending my comments of the flyer of Live Herring / Arctic & Fabulous / Jyväskylä Art Museum / Jyväskylä light event. Forwarded dates for Art Fair in Helsinki.

(~8pm) Some small updates for Swedish Taito Shop demo. Also some product updates for Finnish TaitoShop.

(~9pm) Setting up the wlan for new laptop / notebook. (Hallelujah, it's now working. So proud of myself.) Continued a bit with Craft Museum shop layout but still didn't finish. Thank God for coffee.

(~11pm) Working with if you just project.

(~1.30am) Small updates to Värjärikilta site. Sending blog invitation to one dyers' guild member.

(~1.50am) Updating Savi-M site.

(~2.30am) Still some adjustments with if you just project.

(~3am) Writing this. Very tired. Head filled with stuff.

Come - Bell

I haven't been to Estonia since 1990 (for a few days in Talling in some strange rock / punk festival) when it was still part of Soviet Union. Except for a short drive through via Via Baltica in 2002 when Timppa and I drove with Sebastian B. to Vilnius, Lithuania in one day and then Timppa and I returned for about week later from Vilnius to Tallinn by bus in one night and then right across the sea back to Helsinki without seeing anything. So, the former is a whole different story and the latter doesn't really count.

When textile artist Ulla Lapiolahti told me last autumn about this potato print festival that she had heard of, I was ready to go right away. So, when the middle of the August finally came, we packed out bags and after one night stay in Helsinki we crossed over to Tallinn, took the train from Tallinn to Türi and continued from there to the Laupa mansion. The whole festival was organised very freely without any timetable stress or pressure to do everything in a strict way or order which suited me more than well. We even worked in my normal day schedule (breakfast in 10 or 11 ... or at 1 pm...).

Since I find myself sitting in the front of my computer monitor 24/7, the festival was really a refreshing break to my usual life. I found also the place, the Laupa mansion and its peaceful surroundings, to be absolute meditational heaven. The mansion, which works as a school these days, was under renovation and everything was piled and wrapped - the pianos for example were wrapped in plastic foil - which brought more of the surrealistic clang to the place. I enjoyed sitting around the building just feeling the atmosphere. There were many empty spaces and I was a bit frustated that I *didn't* pack Zoom (digital sound recorder) with me - there would have been many strange and beautiful voices and soundscapes to save...

Anyway, I really didn't get as much images done as I had planned but I got some new ideas to my future art work and other work projects too. I wrote many pages to my memo book after arriving home at Sunday night / Monday morning at about three/four am, before going to sleep. I'm absolutely enthusiastic right now! Ulla gave a lecture of natural dyes and pigments and for the first time I tried printing with natural dyes - I did most of my prints with soot black (which is pigment) and cochenille and madder tinctures mixed with gum arabic. This is the thing that I must continue to do. (I still have to find more detailed info about concentrating the natural dyes into inks and paints though.)

Sadly I noticed that I haven't got any images from the lecture of potatos (changing the world) by the director of London Print Studio, John Phillips, which I found really interesting and entertaining. Lecture by Phillips was not the only thing I didn't take pictures of. I'm quite angry with myself for not taking more images from the event generally, since there would have been so much to document. When I looked through my photo files I found mainly images from the Laupa mansion rooms and little details all over... Well, it's the organizers' fault really: why do they find such an interesting place to have the event... :)

Anyway: new ideas, new working methods, new techniques and most important: new, interesting contacts. People taking part to the festival were with various backgrounds which made the festival more interesting. I hope to be in contact with those people in future too.

More about the festival: www.printpotato.pri.ee Festival works will be exhibited in EKA Galerii (Eesti Kunstiakadeemia, Tallinn) September 3.-15, 2008.

Bookhouse Boys - Dead

Unbelievable - three months have passed since my last blogging. What has happened? Well, we spent the most wonderful two weeks in Florence in Italy in May; in June we took a short trip to see Finnish lighthouses on the west coast, I took part to the Medieval Market in Turku with Värjärikilta (Dyers' Guild); in July we went back to Turku for Ruisrock and on the end of the month I travelled to Evo to spend some days in dye courses etc - and next week I'll be travelling to Estonia. But nothing has happened on my digital web / graphic mastering office. NOTHING at all. (Copy-pasting doesn't really count.)

I'm a bit behind with all of my work projects; many ideas going around inside my head but nothing coming out except blurry versions of them - so there's really absolutely nothing new with my life at this time.

Except: in June I found out that I got accepted in school: in autumn I'll start studying masters programme in media production in Tampere. Not moving there though. That should be interesting...

Css - Rat Is Dead

Eemil.fi www.eemil.fi [January 2008; graphic design]

It's soooo beautiful outside that it almost hurts. Well... It hurts. As I am sitting inside trying to finish some projects off so I can have a few nice holidays without worrying unfinished projects.

The spring has provided me some lowest lows and highest highs. I won't talk about the lows more than that it was something to do with my health and everything is ok now, nothing to worry anymore. But more words about the highs: the absolutely highest point of this season was when I received the Cultural prize of The Jyväskylä City. It was given me in the ten year anniversary seminar of the Jyväskylä Art Museum April 22, 2008. I learned about the prize already in February but I had to keep it hush-hush until the prize giving day, but because my spring has been so full of things to think about, I actually realized the whole thing after the prize was given to me and partying happened. Feels quite strange. Nice but strange.

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Lately I've been working with my portfolios. I decided to apply to a school - to get me an upper level degree. I *did* fill all the forms needed and I *did* made myself a portfolio of my recent doings, however, I'm not here when the interview part of the process is going on. So, let's see how it goes and can I fix something up.
I updated my work-o-matic and simplex a bit but there are still some projects missing. I'm hoping to get myself pulled together to make a proper portfolio and also a new art site. But this has to wait for some time...

Marit Bergman - Out On The Piers

The Finnish Critics Association www.sarv.fi [2007/2008; graphic design]

Spring is the time for endles copy-pasting. New spring collections for both Papiina (the site design is not mine but I've been updating the site anyway) and Riiminka are now online.

This last week I've been having a short easter holidays and then a few day trip to Kuopio (not really recommending for spending more than one day in winter time; propably nice town to live but not for city tourist). I've done some projects that have been hanging there for a while, f.ex. Värjärikilta (Dyer's Guild) logo and new site layout which I hope to realize in a few weeks time.

I've also been fighting with composer Antti Auvinen's website. I've liked that project from the beginning because Antti had such strong opinions and wishes of how the site should be and I've had some challenges that I've really like solving - like a large puzzle mystery. But now it's finally starting bugging me a bit because nothing works like I've planned. The very same thing is happening with Jyväskylä Art Museum site.

Then there is co-operation project with dancer Noora Nenonen (If you just...) which is a cross media art project. I should finish the website this weekend... Another project that I don't know yet how to execute the whole thing.

So off I go. To scrub my head.

ps. About the SARV project of which the image is from... The final layout is a version of my layout. Originally there was quite different navigation font, a little bit lighter (not due to colours but not so heavy).

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Misery Loves Its Company

Textile Artist Hannele Ollakka www.hanneleollakka.fi [December 11 2007]

I've been passive onliner for a couple of weeks: I've read a lot blogs and just wandered around the net but haven't written anything or finished any work projects. I've just put things to be done further away. Some kind of overload.

Beginning of this year - so far - has held the deep lows and highest heights, the both at same time. There were some serious things happening in my life - still are, but things are looking much more brighter at already. Although I'm not writing about anything devastating, somebody passing away or anything like that, there are sometimes these small defining moments when you just stop and look around and notice where you are and what you've done.

My moment turned out to be good: a new start really. I decided to put more effort to the visual design, illustration and design thingies in general. Maybe those zillions of post-its will get to put in "projects done" file instead of "projects that will never be realized".

Plumb - Cut

Photographer Mikko Auerniitty www.auerniitty.fi [December 11 2007]

About Mikko's site (above): I really enjoyed making the simple site with simple solutions for Mikko. The project was fast to execute and co-operation went fluently. Right now we both have images exhibited in the photography exhibition in Galleria Harmonia still a few more days. (This is a funny thing really: I was packing my exhibition works to be removed from the gallery when I noticed that there was an invitation to all photographic based word to be juried to the exhibition. So I left three of my works to be juried and they all made it!)

Some of the other projects I'm working with are a bit heavier and slower to execute. Sometimes it just feels that I would like to finish the projects already. But sometimes I feel that the time has brought up some new and fresh ideas (like with Auvinen's website, almost finished) that I wouldn't have got otherwise.

But what's really irritating are my own projects: I've been adding post-its about my ideas to my wall and now there are about thirty of them. Some of them are a littler harder to start but most of them would be so easy to make when I just would got myself to do so. Grrr. It just feels that when the day's work is done, there's no more mental capacity to do anything else but stare voidly telly and think about nothing. I should organize myself one day at week which would be completely dedicated to me, myself and I.

There's some light at the end of the dark working tunnel though: yesterday I bought a paper cutter (gilliotine type) and I'm seriously giving some time and effort to make these small booklets I've dreamt about. We took also a brochure from the shop and yesterday I noticed that they sell these large envelopes (that the post office doesn't) into which I could fit my large prints. I calculated that I could also fit in a few cardboards to give some strenght. One problem solved; only few - like custom declarations etc. - to solve.

Jeff Buckley - Lover You Should've Come Over

Taitosaari project www.aivia.fi/kadentaitajat [December 10 2007]

Last autumn I was teaching at Taitosaari project in Viitasaari and Saarijärvi on weekends. The courses / lectures were given to the craft makers of that area. The website above, published in December 07, was the final ending to the project. During last autumn I got to know some really nice and talented people and while I taught them about the digital possibilities, they got me inspirated of making things with my hands. I found myself drawing and cutting paper and making all kinds of small hobby crafts. And enjoying it.

My book making enthusianism has gone further: I've made lots of sketches and all kinds of notes about my following projects. I'll be also making I've ordered a paper cutter - which did cost quite much (can't be lazy now) - and I'm planning opening a webshop. Shop opening hoolaballoo will propably take place after we'll come back from Florence at the beginning of June... I'm very hopeful about this whole project and I wish that some day I could concentrate more on graphical designing (and *my kind* of graphical designing) but at the same time I know that work in the craft field can be quite devastating.

Because there are also some sad news: the web site for Eeva Ylönen got cancelled when Eeva decided to end making craftworks. That's quite sad because I was really waiting forward to publish the site - there were many new ideas and small visual effects that would have made the site very interesting (and of course the products themselves).

Klaxons - Atlantis to Interzone

Noramies.com kainoramies.com [November 27 2007]

Last weekend I learnt how to make books. I've taken a similar (or actually two week) course of book binding when I was in school in Tampere but it was ages ago. I noticed right away in the very start of this weekend course that all the old information had vanished from my head. This time I have to take care not to forget this craft because I really enjoy the possibilities of what I could do with book binding skills. I have one idea of making these small 10-page "dye books", each binded using different printed and numbered sheets with image and dye samples; each book containing different leaves. Another idea is making sort of artists books about colour which all will be individual, used both printed material and some collage techniques.

Making prints and books and developing different techniques to complete my art projects have given me enermous amount of energy with my other projects too. Some how making things with your hands and creating stuff makes you even more creative. Odd, but seems to be true.

Small updates to Alvar Aalto Foundation, The Craft Museum of Finland, The Arts Council of Central Finland and satumontanari.com.

Don Fardon - I'm alive

Textile Artist Satu Montanari satumontanari.com [August 2007]

Unbelievable how the time flies. I generally find blogging a way to sort of "empty my desk" after a workday or after an extensive project but somehow I seldom blog these days. Maybe there's just too much happening and I'm starting to avoid nerdy life style. Or maybe there's just nothing going on with my life... Anyway, I notice that my English is getting rusty. Have to start practising again.

Actually, there has been something going on: my exhibition will go on still + one week and I've already sold two works! Last week I received a grant for update/developement project for Coloria and Coloriasto, and also a new project with dancer Noora Nenonen and I ...If You Just Asked got a small grant.

Also, my Grande Art Project News is definitely the most biggest artwork order this far: before christmas I got a call from the Jyväskylä Municipality which wanted to order 90 prints from me to be given as gifts. Of course I said yes. So, it was a bit hectic for a while when I tried to make both these commission works and my exhibition + all the work projects. Right now it starts to look good. I've already delivered some of the artworks to my client and there's not much left to finish.

At the same time when I'm feeling absolutely exhausted, I'm very enthusiastic too. Positive comments from my works lately have really swinged my mood up and given some extra energy. I would so much like to do something completely new and different design projects right now - something more graphical and powerful. I'll have to sketch something down soon - maybe using Illustrator again after a while. Would do good. Some practising there too...

Displacements - Lazy Bones

Once Upon A Time...
Galleria Harmonia Jan 10 - Feb 10 2008
(Hannikaisenkatu 39, Jyväskylä; across the road from the railwaystation)
Welcome to exhibition opening
in Jan 10 at 6 pm